Within the Avnet 'Zed' Community, we spend a lot of time talking about SoC's with hard-core processors. The original ZedBoard started it all with a Zynq-7000 device with ARM A9. We've also done a lot with Zynq UltraScale+ family and ARM A53 (UltraZed, Ultra96). However, what if you don't need the ARM? What if Microblaze is good enough or you don't need a processor at all?

If you are looking for a more traditional, PL-only device, then Spartan-7 may be a good, low-cost choice. If you don't need the ARM device, you can save quite a bit of money going with something like Spartan-7. For example, the XC7S50 device has 52K logic cells, about the same as the single XC7Z012S (55K logic cells). However, the S7 device is about half the price. You can read more about Spartan-7 here:

However, since it isn't an official member of the 'Zed' Community, you won't find an official Product Page for it on Element14. My goal is to compile information about the Arty-S7 into this blog for easy access for you.